Gazzard explains: "Hydrotherapy is simply very warm water where the children can come and relax. With hot water like this, they can start to stretch out their legs and arms and increase their range of movement after they’ve been sitting still for so long.
"Putting the lights in and the sound brings a whole new dimension to the use of the pool, and we can actually start to educate them in here as well. These are children that aren’t reacting to normal stimuli at all: here, we can get them to start to react, and that’s the first stage of learning. They make a noise, and the light reacts to their sound - they see cause and effect. They can start to make choices. It’s also very useful for autistic children: they don’t see why they should communicate with you at all, but in an environment like this where they’re warm, and active, and things are happening that they like, they start to initiate communication with you, because they want more."
The environment was designed by Stagecraft in conjunction with Gazzard, to create the optimum sensory stimulus within the available budget. Among other requirements, it needed to provide impact and interaction, as well as be flexible enough to allow for later developments in technology or therapy.
Stagecraft’s project manager Martin Palmer led the design and installation of the system at the school. It’s a project he has found both enjoyable and rewarding. He says: "The design brief from Hampshire County Council was actually quite basic - they wanted to be able to change the colour of one wall completely, and make it interact with sound, and have other additions to allow for future upgrades. We’ve put internally-wired bars in so they can hang new lights or projectors afterwards. From that point we had to marry all these elements together to make it happen."
To do this, Palmer has used a Zero 88 Chilli Pro waterproof 10-button replay panel on the wall by the pool, linked via standard Cat 5 cable through to a Zero 88 FrogBox in the adjacent rack room. The FrogBox is responsible for all the system’s activities. "This is the first time we’ve used them connected up in this way, but it’s worked really well," says Palmer.
Above the pool, a Shure MX aerial pick-up mic connects straight through to the FrogBox for sound-to-light operation. The very striking lighting of the curved rear wall of the space comes from 10 ceiling-mounted ChromaDome units from Pulsar’s increasingly ubiquitous Chroma Range of LED-based colour-changing lighting fixtures. The very even field of these luminaires, combined with the curved white wall, helps to confuse the perception of depth of field as you look at the wall, greatly increasing the required ‘impact’. This is further strengthened by the reflection from the blue, mirror-like ceiling above the pool, which is actually made from stretched rubber.
As you would expect, the ChromaDomes represent the major part of the total equipment spend, but all involved have been well impressed with their performance. When asked about alternatives, Palmer said: "There were certainly none at the time we spec’d the system that would have done the same job . . . We’re looking at others now, but they still can’t do what the Chromas do in terms of output."
The FrogBox runs the ChromaDomes via a ChromaZone control pack and a 6-channel Pulsar switchpack, which also sit in the rack.
A Denon CD player is also provided for music playback, which is delivered through eight DI06-165T Marine ceiling speakers above t
